More About the iPod and the Penguin
Learn how to get the most out of your iPod with Linux.
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
I’m a bit of a latecomer to the iPod and portable digital music player craze, but I recently purchased a 60 GB iPod and now I’m hooked. It’s hard to resist bringing your entire music collection with you on the go.
Of course, I quickly found myself wanting to sync my iPod with my favorite operating system, the Penguin. Alas, I discovered that if you’re an iPod owner who likes to use it with any system other than Mac or Windows, you’re a third class citizen (at best). But fear not, my fellow aquatic bird lovers, you can get your iPod working with Linux. However, the road is winding and some obstacles must be overcome.
Getting Started
I assume that most of you have a 2.6- based version of Linux. If not, I suggest you get one, otherwise the entire exercise that follows is a no-go. I’ve tested all this stuff with SuSE Linux 10, Ubuntu 5.10 “Breezy”, Debian 3.1 “Sarge”, and Fedora Core 4 and Core 5.
With a suitable distro booted up, connect your iPod to it’s USB cable, and connect your USB cable to your PC. If you’re running the GNOME desktop, you’ll probably see a iPod icon appear on your desktop, and if you click into it, you’ll be able to browse the directory structure on your iPod and copy files back and forth. (See Figure One.)
